Roofs are usually equipped with a gutter system. These systems typically each comprise a horizontal gutter trough open at its upper end, that is positioned virtually parallel to the edges of the roof of a building. The gutter collects the rain water from the roof and redirects it into a vertical downspout that directs the collected rainwater into a desired channel or drainage area away from the building.
One of the main issues with the presently available gutter systems is that debris, such as leaves, roofing material, sticks, animal dirt, and other objects collect within the prior art gutter systems. Such debris collected in the gutter system may block the flow of the water through the gutter system. Blockage tends to occur within the gutters, around the spikes or hangers, in the bends or elbows incorporated in the gutter systems (e.g., in the downspout system), in the downspout system and in other areas of the system.
A blockage of debris collected within the gutter system will cause a backup of water to overflow instead of running down the downspout. The excess water will then pour over the edges of the horizontal gutters (i.e., eaves or eavestroughs). This will cause the water to run down the sides of the building (e.g., a house or other building) damaging the sidings and catching the owner of the building completely by surprise as he/she was not aware of the problem building up in the first place. Such an outcome can be easily prevented by the present invention. (For ease of reference, all references to a building that is a house or a home herein also refer to any other type of building.)
This backup occurring in prior art systems causes a number of serious problems. For example, water may leak into the home from the sides of the house or from the frame of the windows (usually where the caulking is applied around the casing of the window), which can cause internal molding and other damages which leads to thousands of dollars in repairs. The overflow of water may also damage the covering materials of the home such as bricks, stucco or siding.
The blockage in the gutter system may also cause serious damage to the foundation of the building because the overflow of water from the walls may trickle into the ground surrounding the house and cause cracks in the foundation of the home. Therefore, gutters must be periodically cleaned to prevent serious damage to the home. The conventional method of eavestrough and downspout cleaning/repairs today has create significant costs for owners of buildings. The prior art is further prone to causing building owners to incur unnecessary cost due to being scammed into paying for a cleaning that was not done or paying for an eavestrough cleaning/repair that was not needed (examples are explained below).
The problem with the prior art eavestroughs, downspouts and elbows is that homeowners have zero knowledge of the physical/internal state of their gutters, downspouts or elbows. This leaves building owners vulnerable to many detrimental outcomes.
A homeowner may ask for their eaves or downspouts to be cleaned and call on a professional to take on that task (usually it is done 1-2 times a year at an average cost of CDN$150-200 dollars for each cleaning). Generally how this industry is run is that a professional will show up to the house set-up the ladder and get onto the roof. The professional will then proceed to “clean” the gutters (a complete gutter cleaning should take about 2.5-3 hrs including the downspouts). Once finished, the professional will invoice the customer for the service. The common problem that homeowners face in this situation is the inability to tell if the job was completed. Building owners are forced to reply on the word of the professional cleaner on-site. The inventor (a former gutter and downspout cleaner of 5 years) estimates that 9 times out of 10 the cleaner on-site either did a very poor job. For example, by collecting only a small fraction of debris from the eavestrough and showing it to the customer as evidence of a complete job while the job has not been fully completed. Or, as another example, by not doing the job at all.
The customer can be charged the full amount for a complete gutter cleaning without the customer checking for results. Due to the level of heights involved with gutter cleaning/repairing the homeowner is forced to take the cleaner/technicians word that the cleaning is fully completed. This leaves homeowners and their houses very vulnerable, and prone to damages. Un-cleaned gutters, downspouts and elbows can cause huge problems for homeowners down the line. For example, un-cleaned gutters means there is still debris left in the gutters. The amount of weight a gutter can sustain is limited before the hangers dislodge from the home and start to hang off. To repair damaged gutters would cost the homeowner thousands of dollars in repairs, all because debris was not removed during the original cleaning and eventually over time more debris accumulated thus causing damages.
Another issue with the conventional gutter and downspout system is that if a homeowner notices an overflow of water their first intention is to get the problem solved. So the homeowner calls on a professional to service them. The professional comes to the home, gets on the roof and offers a quote. Without the homeowner having knowledge of what's going on in the gutter, downspout or elbows the homeowner is in yet another vulnerable position. The building owner wants the problem fixed immediately and is willing to take the word of a professional. This is where the professional takes full advantage of the homeowner, charging top dollar for an overflow issue that could be for something as small as a bird nest being stuck in the gutter, downspout or elbow. Had the homeowner been aware of the issue at hand and been able to see how their eaves, downspouts or elbows look (i.e., the level of debris therein), this would have helped the homeowner to avoid a pricey fix and to obtain a more ACCURATE quote. Moreover, if handy enough, the homeowner could have easily resolved the issue themselves and avoided costly repairs (e.g., estimated CDN$400-800 dollar repairs).
Traditional prior art gutters, downspouts and elbows constrict the homeowner from knowing the condition that their gutters, downspouts or elbows are in. In some cases the homeowner will pay to have the gutters or downspouts cleaned once or twice a year either because they want to protect the investment in their home, because they were convinced by an eavestrough company to get the job done, or any other reason. Often times an eavestrough may be completely empty and, with no knowledge of how their eaves, downspouts or elbows look (i.e., the level of debris therein), the homeowner will spend a few hundred dollars to get the cleaning done when their eaves, downspout or elbows may not need it in the first place.
These, along with many other, problems are what homeowners face with the conventional gutter and downspout system. The conventional downspout system comprises of a series of elbows and adaptors which help direct and guide the flow of water and minor debris from the eavestrough to either the sewage line or lawn. When the water or debris passes through the conventional downspout system the elbow adaptors of the downspouts are highly prone to debris clogging as that is where the bend occurs in the downspout system. The bend is susceptible to this issue because of the ability for the debris to sit in the bend (i.e., the corner) of the elbow thus causing the elbow to become clogged. Traditional methods of unclogging an elbow would be to un-assemble the downspout system which would cost a homeowner time (a professional takes about 2 hours and a homeowner takes upwards of 3-4 hours), money and a ton of headaches. The inventor's approach to this issue in the present invention resolves all headaches and saves the customer time and money. Not to mention that if the customer chooses to hire a professional to take on the problem the professional will have a much smoother job unclogging the elbows of the present invention than experienced with prior art elbows, and this in turn could potentially offer a cheaper quote to the customer to clean an elbow of the present invention thus saving the customer money.
Prior art has attempted to solve the problems in gutter systems by using debris collection devices. Such debris collection devices are generally located at the bottom of the prior art downspout, the spot least prone to getting clogged. The prior art further incorporates filters in gutter cleaning systems. Also, in some prior art, filters are used to prevent the blockage of the gutter system by capturing the debris flowing through the gutter system. Notably the prior art method of placing a filter at the top of the downspout has proved to do more harm than good and is a very simple way for clogging and backups to occur. The prior art discloses a wide variety of gutter systems of various structures and configurations intended to direct rainwater away from a roof of a house or other building structure, but the prior art systems have not helped solve the problems stated above. Most conventional gutter systems still have an open top, which can become clogged by leaves or other debris. Gutter systems with covers, such as screens intended to reduce clogging, are included in the prior art but these designs are faulty, can clog over time, and have not yet improved the gutter and downspout industry.